DESIGNED BY MARCEL BREUER IN 1925, MANUFACTURED BY STANDARD-MBEL, 1927

This design was conceived by Breuer in 1925 and was his earliest experiment with tubular steel furniture. The very first example produced in this year by Breuer and his assistants was welded throughout -- the result was a chair which was structurally quite weak, and also rather bulky to store. This structure was quickly revised to a model where the elements were made separately then bolted together, resulting in a chair which was both stronger and easier to produce in numbers. The earliest examples produced under Breuer's direction at Standard Mbel in 1926 had an open U-shaped back. The design was modified in 1927-28 to the bent closed upper back. This form endured in subsequent production by Standard Mbel and, from 1928, by Thonet, who acquired the production and distribution rights for the chair.